Sunday, April 25, 2010

For April's Blog Hop, the challenge was to use tissue paper. I chose to do Faux Silk on 2 "folksy" cards with Giga Guide Lines and some fave images from Rustic Branches and First Fruits.

I have been wanting to try this cutting trick with the pineapple ever since Nichole Heady debuted the set "First Fruits" so long ago! She showed how to cut the edges of the pineapple and "flick" them forward to give it dimension...love how it looks. Also added some Liquid Pearls...wish that stuff came in a jumbo size :)

Tried same type of card with different colors and sparkled up some of the berries on the Rustic Branches wreath with Tim Holtz Distressed Stickles in Fired Brick!

Happy Birthday to the good ole' hubby Jason who is 36 today! So glad I married an older man, (giggle). (Edit: Eek, Becky just reminded me that he is 37! I am getting senile, oops, I mean he TOLD me 36 so HE is getting senile, hee!)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Last week I had the honor of hosting Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday Challenge at Splitcoaststampers! Every Tuesday Mothermark, aka Cindy Motherway, chooses a teapot and tells an outlandish story inspired by it. Then we are all to make a card inspired by her story...usually the teapot is the "theme" of the party, and lets us travel to spots all around the globe.

For my party, we went to Florida to see the famous "Speedy the Cat". That's Faith Hofrichter's cat....she is also known as "Markie's Mom" at Splitcoast. The party was in her honor as she has 100,000 posts! My party was entitled "A Tuesday TeaPOST for the one with the MOST!" Faith always tells funny stories about her black cat Speedy. So here is the teapot, my story, and my card:

Have you ever noticed that number under your avatar? The one that notes how many posts or comments that you have made? Some people are just starting out in the 100's, some people are in the middle of the road at 5,000, and some are even over 10,000 and get to change from a "Glitter Guru" to a name of their choice!

But THEN there is Faith (Markie's Mom). OH MY GOSH...GET the CAFFEINE! She is closing in on 100,000 posts/comments!!!!!!! That's a whole lotta love on Splitcoast! She WOWS us with her gorgeous cards, has her own new stamp company "Mark's Finest Papers," and the COMMENTS, oh the comments she leaves all of us! You know we ALL love when that smiley blonde pops up in our gallery. So today we are throwing a party for Faith...a Tuesday TeaPOST for the one with the MOST!

So here's the story:

Faith has this little black cat named Speedy. Speedy gets into alot of trouble, and has Faith calling for the Tylenol on a daily basis! He dumps her bins of scrap paper, fiddles with her ribbons, and waltzes across her ink pads! Well Faith has had ENOUGH! She thinks that Speedy needs to go on a little vacation. Faith saw an ad in the Florida Gazette that Kittie Caracciolo was hosting a little "Learn to Cause a Scene" watercoloring session nearby. PERFECT, she thought, because Speedy can DEFINITELY do that! Here comes the surprise...once Speedy is out of the house, we can all head to Faith's kitchen for a little relaxation and some TEA.

This ain't no LARK, MARK! (Mark is Faith's husband, who is desperately trying to book a flight out for him and for Markie, because the thought of all of the teapotters and their weekly antics in the kitchen is making him a tad nervous). There is one teeny problem. Speedy is slacking on the packin'! There he sits among a pile of freshly folded laundry. Faith has told him "like 100,000 times" to get going or he'll miss the bus!

So we need LOTS of ideas to get Speedy on the move! Bring your best ideas to the party...or maybe a few snacks to tempt him...or how about showing him all of the fun he will have making scenes with Kittie?! Maybe you could show us the scene at Faith's house as she waits for Speedy to get packin'!! How about tempting Speedy with the promise of a Florida Feline Lady Friend or participating in the annual Florida Gator Wrestling Contest which happens to start on Tuesday! Bwahahaha! But I must say, if you bring a skeery dog, then you'll have to come in the back door!

And here is my card. It's called "Markie Saves the Day"...he loaded up Speedy's suitcase into his Little Red Wagon, and headed off to the bus station, leaving Speedy to chase after calling, "Markie wait for ME!" (My Speedy is courtesy of Pink Persimmon's Little Cuties!)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Today's Featured Stamper at Splitcoast is Dara! She LOVES flower and nature stamps and her gallery is like walking through a garden! I chose this card of Dara's to case.

Kept Dara's theme and elements, changed flower images, the layout a bit, and used tulle instead of toile! Violet and sentiment are from PTI's Year of the Flower: Violets, and Tulle Damask Backgrounder is from Cornish Heritage Farms! I colored the violet by sponging with various Tim Holtz Distress inks.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Waltzingmouse Stamps is having a blog hop in honor of Mother's Day! We were to make a card for a special lady in our life. Unfortunately, my mother died when I was 18, but I am so lucky to have a most wonderful Mother-in-Law named Mary.

I used the flower from Waltzingmouse's Sewing Box Hugs and the lace stamp from Faux Fun. I used PTI's Berry Sorbet cardstock and Versamark ink for the images. When I was done, I heat embossed the flowers and lace with White Puff embossing powder by Ranger. The sentiment is from a retired company called The Saltbox Studio.

Mom definitely "Lives Simply". Her life is all about family, generosity, faith, kindness, and honesty...all of the simple things that mean the most. I am so lucky to have her in my life! Thanks for stopping by on the hop!

Friday, April 9, 2010

For Cathy Edvalson's Moxie Fab Challenge...to use one of Kim Kesti's sketches published in the new special issue of PaperCrafts Magazine "Go-To Sketches"...it is SUCH a great issue, you'll have to check it out! Here is my take:

Used the Scottie Dogs set, and a sentiment that is included in the Little Red Wagon set, both from Pink Persimmon. Used Scottie's argyle coat, because argyle is IN right now. There were some great cards using argyle in the magazine!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Roxie had a great sketch posted at Splitcoaststampers today, so I used it with one of Pink Persimmon's new "Tin Tie Coffee Bags" coming soon to the "alterables" section of the store. I used the small version to make a little treat bag for a boy!

Watercolored the mushroom and frog from the Ribbit stamp set, and then used the sentiment "Greetings" from the Scottie Dogs stamp set. So lucky that I have some Divine Twine left, it was perfect to wrap around the stem and the top of the bag! These bags are so fun to play with and are just the perfect size for a sweet treat, a little gift, or even wrapping a gift card!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Oh the WEATHER here today! It seems that this weekend we hopped past spring and went straight to summer...it was 85! This card made me think of everything happy and spring here in Rochester. It is a cute little card with some Pink Persimmon stamps that I haven't shared yet.

I used the butterfly from the Flower Garden set, and the Banner Set (small), to make a cute baby card. The letters are little epoxy stickers. The background was made with the Open Plaid Backgrounder, a retired stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms, and the cardstock is from Papertrey Ink.